The calamitous effects of marine oil spills have led to the development of a variety of oil spill containment and recovery means and methods. However, the vast sizes of large spills have created an urgent need for oil spill recovery techniques by which it will be possible to clean up larger volumes of oil in a shorter time than has heretofore been achieved. For current techniques which employ chemical and biological means as well as physical recovery apparatus, such as skimmers, absorbers, hydrocyclone separators and the like, the ability to recover large volumes of oil in a short time is still an elusive goal.